‘Tryst with Destiny’

—Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

From the memorable speech he made in the

L ong years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when

we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very
substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India
will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in
history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when
the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this
solemn moment, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her
people and to the still larger cause of humanity. At the dawn of history, India
started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her
striving and grandeur of her success and failures. Through good and ill fortune
alike, she has never lost sight of that quest, forgotten the ideals which gave her
strength. We end today a period of misfortunes and India discovers herself
again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of
opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we
brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the
challenge of the future?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this
Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before
the birth of freedom, we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are
heavy with the memory of this sorrrow. Some of those pains continue even now.
Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons us now.
 That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we
may fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today.
The service of India means, the service of the millions who suffer. It means the
ending of poverty and ignorance and poverty and disease and inequality of
opportunity. The ambition of the greatest men of our generation has been to
wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are
tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
And so we have to labour and to work, and to work hard, to give reality to
our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all
the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them
to imagine that it can live apart. Peace is said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so
is prosperity now, and also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be
split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to
join us with faith and
confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive
criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble
mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.
The appointed day has come the day appointed by destiny- and India stands
forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent.
The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before
we redeem the pledges we have so often taken.
Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history
which we shall live and act and others will write about.
It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new
star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision
long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be
betrayed!
We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of
our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But
freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the
spirit of a free and disciplined people.
On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father
of our Nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of
freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been
unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we
but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in
their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and
courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown
out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest
Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of
freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.
 We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by
political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom
that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and
we shall be sharers in their good [or] ill fortune alike.
The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our
endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the
peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and
disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to
create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and
fullness of life to every man and woman.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we
redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny
intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold
advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever
religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights,
privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or
narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in
thought or in action.
To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge
ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.
And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the
ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her
service.